A suspected phantom voter was allowed to cast his ballot at a polling station in Likas, Sabah today, despite a polling agent's complaint.

The middle-aged voter had submitted his temporary identification form, or JPN 1/9, at the polling station at Sekolah Kebangsaan Likas, prompting a polling agent's objection.

"I object towards him voting, he can't vote," the woman polling agent said, pointing to the voter with her ruler.

However, the Election Commission (EC) staff who were there kept mum and merely stared at her while the suspected voter, with document in hand, stood still and kept quiet.

When the polling agent insisted that she "had the right to object against him being allowed to vote", it sparked a response from the disagreeing returning officer who started arguing with her.

Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) candidate Dr Chong Eng Leong who had been stationed outside then came into the classroom, trailed by a few journalists, to check the particulars of the voter with the EC staff.

While this was happening, one of the EC staff quickly issued the ballot paper to the voter who hurriedly cast his vote and left.

The polling agents then asked the EC staff to repeat the voter's name as well as his old and new IC numbers.

When the EC staff omitted the new IC number, one polling agent queried for the reason but only got silence in response.

A policeman who ventured in was immediately asked to go after the dubious voter. Instead, he checked the identities of the journalists present.

Though he initially requested some of them to leave the school compound, he left them alone when they insisted that they had the right to be there since they held the tags issued by the EC.

Later, when approached by malaysiakini, the voter in contention said, "Why can't I vote? My document was released by the National Registration Department. If it weren't, how could I have come to vote?"

Meanwhile, Chong said about 20 people had left the polling station after being queried on their documents.